No Knead Bread

After the craziness of yesterday afternoon, spending "quality" time with the dogs and the parrot in a closet under the stairs, listening to tornado sirens blaring and hail hitting the house, I decided to try making no knead bread. I don't know how I stumbled upon this blog but I'm glad that I did. Now I love bread. Probably too much. Especially when it's warm from the oven or bread maker, slathered with butter... oops. Drooling now.... As you know, I've been doing Weight Watchers since the end of October, so it's not a treat I allow myself very often. And since I've pretty much been at a plateau since I hit my 10% goal, I probably shouldn't be treating myself now. That's life, though. I can eat things, but I'd better be prepared to exercise more and eat plently of healthy things, too.

I have a bread machine, which makes great bread. When I've tried to make it by myself, I've totally messed up. Last time, I ended up with bread that wouldn't rise, and was so tough. I think the yeast continued to rise in my stomach, which was NOT a good thing. So when I heard about no knead bread, I thought it would be neat to try. So last night, after I signed off from work, I put the dough together. Flour, salt, yeast and water. Pretty easy, huh? I'm not 100% sure my yeast was fresh enough, but it rose. The trick to no knead bread is that you don't mess with it. It sits in a bowl, on your counter, overnight. Simple.

No Knead Bread

3 cups AP flour

1 3/4 t salt (Note: this was too salty. I'll reduce to 1 t next time)

1/2 t yeast

1 1/2 c water

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and yeast. Stir in the water, mixing enough to ensure that it's worked in. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 12-18 hours on your counter.

This is what it looked like this morning, after 13 hours. When you're ready to bake, heat up your oven to 450. When it reaches temperature, put your dutch oven and lid in to heat for 30 minutes. (Note: I read that my dutch oven lid can only be safely heated to 400 because of the handle, so I heated the bottom for 15 minutes at 450, reduced the heat, and when it hit 400, I put the lid on and heated for another 15 minutes.)

While the oven is heating, dump out the sticky dough mixture on to a heavily floured counter and shape in to a ball. Mine didn't really come out as a ball, more like a blob. Cover with the plastic wrap and let it rest while the oven and the pan are heating. After the pan has heated for 30 minutes, remove from the oven. Pick up the blob and put it in to the pan. Cover and stick in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove. At this point, I removed the lid and stuck it back in for a few minutes to get it a bit more brown. When it's baked, carefully remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Isn't it pretty?

Now all I need to do is figure out how many WW points this loaf is so I don't eat the whole thing!

Gee, is there anything else to add to the list?

Last night was not a good night for me. For the last couple of years I've been occassionally getting these strange "attacks" while eating. I basically become unable to swallow any food, and what I have eaten won't stay put. At first I thought it was just because I have a tendency to eat too quickly. Then I thought it was because I eat quickly and, if I'm eating at the coffee table, which is more likely than not, I'm hunched over a bit. Stopping eating doesn't help, sitting up straight and rubbing my upper chest to make it feel better doesn't help, my husband's offer of a drink of water is the last thing I want when it's happening. The results are not fun, to put it mildly. Now it looks like it's something a bit more than either of those things. I'm going to have to put on my big girl panties and go to the doctor to get tests done to confirm this, but all indications point to this possibly being eosinophilic esophagitis. (Strange coincidence, The Aussie's boss was tested for this earlier this year, which is how we found out about this condition. The Aussie described what was going on with me and the boss told him that he's been suffering the same thing.)

According to several websites, EE may be linked to food allergies. The list is not encouraging, for someone who really likes food: milk, eggs, peanuts, shellfish, peas, beef, chicken, fish, rye, corn, soy, potatoes, oats, tomatoes and wheat. The most common food triggers are milk, egg, wheat, rye and beef.

I'm not a vegetarian, for @#*%$'s sake. Granted I've joked that I'd give up meat before I'd give up my wine, but really??? Last night for dinner I made chicken paprika, which I LOVE. So, let's see what's on the trigger list, shall we? Chicken - check, milk - check, wheat and egg (noodles) - check, tomatoes - check. About the only things in the dish that aren't on this list is the paprika and the onion. I can joke that at least I didn't use up all of my WW points yesterday, but I actually would have liked to eat my dinner.

I'm not sure what to do about this. My primary protein sources are chicken, egg, dairy, fish, shellfish and beef. I like tofu as well, but soy is on this list too. Am I supposed to eat pork chops, barley and vegetables for the rest of time?

All hope abandon, ye who enter here...

In an attempt to make amends to my tastebuds for the recent black bean brownies episode, and in honor of MizFit and Talk Like A Pirate Day, I be bakin' a decadent favorite for the crew!

RUM CAKE

Here's your cast of scallywags, I mean ingredients:

* 1 yellow cake mix (can be made with gluten free cake mix. My neighbor is gluten intollerant, so that's how I make it when I bring it over for dessert)
* 4 eggs
* 1/2 stick butter (or half cup oil if you're dairy free)
* 1 package instant vanilla pudding
* 1/2 cup of rum (I like dark rum, but feel free to use whatever kind you like or may have on hand)
* 2/3 cup water
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine all ingredients, except chopped pecans if you're using them, in a large mixing bowl and mix with electric mixer for 4 minutes, until there are no lumps.

Grease and flour a bundt pan. If you're using the nuts, sprinkle them in the bundt pan. Pour batter in to pan. Bake for 50 minutes.

Viola. A baked rum cake. Now this is where it gets fun. Time to make the glaze.

GLAZE

1/4 cup rum
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter

Combine in sauce pan. Slowly bring to a boil, and let boil for 3 minutes.

Pour the glaze on to the cake while it's still in the pan and is warm. So Miz, this 'tis for you, a slice o' cake with a wee bit o' grog in it. Enjoy!

Yum. Well you didn't expect me not to taste it and make sure it was good enough for other people to eat, did you? I would never be that thoughtless... ;-)

The Tale of Two Fishes

I found the coolest thing at Kroger this week: whole trout. There was a package of whole trout that was marked down (it had to be sold by the next day) hanging out in the fish section. I think I've only ever eaten trout once, and that was dog's years ago, somewhere between Perth and Cape Leeuwin. The Aussie and I and some of his old friends decided to drive down to Cape Leeuwin and the Margaret River area for the day. We stopped for lunch after the "climb of my life." I had read about the Gloucester Tree , the world's tallest fire-lookout tree, and knew I had to climb it. It was worth it, but I was sore for DAYS afterwards. Needless to say, I earned my lovely trout lunch that day.

So, where was I? Oh, look. A fish.

Luckily, they were dressed, so I just had to figure out what to do with them. I asked around, got a few ideas, and came up with a parsley, arugula, garlic, lemon stuffing. First things first. Off with their heads. And tails. Then I stuffed them with the herbs, garlic and lemon. I drizzled a little olive oil on them, sprinkled a bit of salt on them and let them hang out in the fish basket and other grill basket while the grill got hot. (NOTE: OIL YOUR GRILL BASKET TOO. I'm a newbie griller, so I didn't think it would stick that much. My bad.)

Bring the grill up to 350, clean the grill, then pop them on and put the lid back down. Set the timer for 7 minutes. Spend the 7 minutes amusing yourself by taking pictures of a dog who doesn't want her picture taken.

"Mom. Stop it. I don't WANT my picture taken."

After 7 minutes, flip them over and set the timer for another 7 minutes.

Spend the next 7 minutes finishing up your lemon butter sauce. Go back outside. Take picture of the sous-chef who's stuck inside.

"Hey. Is it ready yet?"

Take it off the grill, turn everything off, and head inside to serve out. Yum.

Be careful. It's hot! (Yes. I did slightly burn myself...)

See what I mean about it sticking? I don't eat fish skin anyway, but it would have looked prettier if the skin stayed on. I served with rice and roast asparagus, and drizzled the lemon butter sauce on top. Very delicious.

'Twas the Last Day Of Summer...

'Twas the last day of summer, and all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even my Spouse...

We had a very quiet, but productive, Labor Day. When I did venture out of the house (into the 95+ degree heat) I decided to take a field trip to a (fairly) recently opened store in Coppell. Where did I go, you ask? (Ok, humor me and pretend you asked)

SPROUTS

Sprouts is a chain of natural grocery stores. It's like farmer's market crossed with a health food store. All sorts of lovely things there. I went there to get corn on the cob, tomatoes, and to see if they carry Crunchmaster multi-seed crackers (awesome crackers).

Here's a shot of the bakery/coffee section.

And the produce section...

Some lovely fruit. (The man picking out plums next to me was a bit puzzled by my photography subjects. )

Ooh. Mangos. We love mangos. (Hanlie, I'll be trying the mango sorbet recipe soon.)

Here's a peek into my basket so far. Corn, check. Tomatoes, check. Other stuff I didn't go there to buy, check.

All in all, it was a lovely field trip on the last "official" day of summer. Oh, and they do carry the crackers I was looking for. And the Hansen's grapefruit soda, and the asparagus, and the Pirate's Booty Veggie, and the...I had fun! (grin)

And here's the final result. Dinner!

Hello and welcome

I am a foodie. A not very fit foodie. But I'm going to change that. Please join me, won't you, on my journey from being a non-exercising, overeating, cooking show-watching couch potato to a fit person who respects and enjoys food.

Since I love to cook as much as I love to eat, I'll be sharing some recipes. (The healthy kind, don't worry! )

An especially big welcome to my friends who follow the awesome Fab Fatties and are challenging themselves to become healthier people. They are an awesome, inspiring group of women and men.

Come along. This should be an interesting ride.